Day 71 – to Mazandrero

The cloud and drizzle cleared during the night, leaving a clear night sky as I left the van just briefly at 5 am.

And the day dawned bright, with temperatures to get up to 20C, too hot for a Cumbrian dog – Roja can’t lie in anything above 14C I have worked out. The other dogs here have no problem of course, in far higher temperatures.

I only drove 10 kilometres, down the mountain to the villages of Entrambasaguas and Mazandrero. There’s a river walk that I had an eye on, but it was very popular, with lots of day-trippers out today to make up for the weather the last two days.

I decided on the opposite side of the river, and found an old path that clearly nobody had taken for some considerable time. It was fine, though with obstructions, and a challenging kilometre climb where there had been a recent landslide. It was, I would hazard a guess, my slowest kilometre of the course so far.

Culminating in Mazandrero I found an ideal place to park up for the afternoon and night. The villages further west are struggling with depopulation, but that isn’t the case here, much nearer to cities. It is clearly a wealthy village with some fine properties. We parked a hundred metres or so away, and nodded to the shepherds that passed to check we were okay. There were lots of farm dogs around, and Roja was hardly still all afternoon, joining them in looking after the horses and cows, much to the amusement of the shepherds.

The only downside is that they brought many flies with them, so after the sun went down, it took a good twenty minutes to get them swatted, or out of the van.